Chapter 8: Please Tell Me What Happens In This Chapter, Because I Have No Idea
"May I have a - uh - Japanese whisky?" I ask the bartender. He goes off to get it, and I twist around on my seat, scanning the party area.
Estella's not here yet. Avery shrugs at me when I see him near the doors. She said she'd be here. Why isn't she here? This might be a chance to get her to tell us the information.
I take out my phone from my purse, pulling up a file in my Notes app. In there is everything that I need to do in the mission.
Target: Estella Morretar
Information to receive: location and current status of Carson Ocean
Kill after receiving information. Do not leave Morretar alive.
Someone slides into the seat next to me. I turn off my phone and take the small glass of whisky in front of me. A gentle tap on my shoulder. I turn around.
Estella flashes me a smile before looking at a bartender. There seem to be at least three serving people alcohol. She slides her fingers across the counter. "I want a... bottle of mild ale."
The bartender hustles into the back room, her bright red ponytail swinging. I open my mouth to speak, but Estella cuts me off.
"I'm sorry I left you in the dressing room today. I had important business to attend to." she laces her fingers together. The bartender - Amanda, according to her pin - places a bottle on the counter, plus a few glasses.
Estella quietly pours some mild ale into one of the glasses. I take a sip of whisky nervously, my fingers fumbly. I don't want to talk to her. But I have to.
Once she finishes the ale in her tiny glass, she fills it again, drinks it again, fills it again, drinks it again, like it's a cycle. Everytime she talks I just nod or laugh or smile.
"And then... I - uh, yeah. Soon later though he disappeared like he was - like he was..." she hums gently, searching for what to say next.
"Like he was Carson Ocean!" she finishes loudly. My heart skips a beat. But I can't let her notice how nervous I am. That would give everything away.
I curl my hand into a fist, prop my elbow on the counter, and rest my cheek on my hand. "Carson Ocean? Who's that?"
Better to fake ignorance. I can't be as indiscreet as last time. Estella is far more observant than Theseus, even when she's drunk and he's not. Well, when he used to be. He's dead.
I hand her a shot of vodka, to get her more intoxicated. She takes a sip and jabs her finger into the air. "Carson's an artist. They - they killed someone."
"Who?" I whisper, careful so that nobody else could hear. Estella doesn't care about that, though, and she responds quite loudly.
"Orion Releigh. Raeleigh. Releigh?" she blabbers. I shush her and grab her arm, pulling her closer to me. In a hushed voice, I ask her where Carson is.
She hiccups and giggles before she responds. Alcohol is weird. "Hmmm. Sri Lanka." she giggles again, her hand still covering her mouth as if frozen there.
"You know... why are you so interested in Carson Ocean all of the sudden?" Estella's eyes widen, and she looks at me with a suspicious look.
I gulp and open my mouth to answer with a lame reply, but Estella's already moved on, snorting and rambling. "Oh, speaking of oceans, once I went to Sunset Beach in Hawaii, did you know that?" she waves her hands excitedly.
I breathe out a sigh of relief, and she continued blabbing on about beaches. I pull up an app on my phone and text Avery. 'Done. I got the info'.
My phone dings. Avery's already texted back. 'Cool. Good job' then a few seconds later another text. 'Knew u could do it'
I smile and as my fast as my thumbs can go, I text back.
'Yeah. Thank God for alcohol'
~
We're in our room again. This time, we're in the luxury room, me and Dev's room. To 'celebrate' the (almost) success of our mission.
Devyn scoots next to me, resting his head on my shoulder. I feel light and happy. There are stars in the deep blue sky and it's so surreal and perfect.
"We're going to have to kill her now, Jules, you know that, right?" Devyn says softly. Julian shrugs. He looks miserable and hides under a blanket pile.
What a baby.
I can tell both Devyn and Avery are annoyed. And I am too. Julian pokes his head out from under the blankets, his eyes squeezed shut.
"I'm gonna tell her about us," he jokes. I mean, I hope he's joking. He'd better be. I narrow my eyes and glare at him, and he ducks back under the blankets.
"You should not, Julian," Avery says sternly, looking at the lumpy blankets. There's a cough from under them and I look away, scowling.
I imagine what would happen if he did. He would get arrested, probably. How about me and Devyn and Avery? Would we get away with it? Probably not. If we kill ourselves first, then sure, but...
Devyn looks up at me worriedly. I blink and smile at him tiredly, but suddenly I don't want to be here anymore. "I'm leaving," I announce, standing up.
Avery shrugs casually. I click the door open to my bedroom only to see that Julian has stolen all the blankets. I growl and turn to his blanket pile.
Julian whimpers and crawls out from under the blankets like a caterpillar. He flies out the door, banging the door behind him. My scowl deepens.
I liked Julian much better before he fell in love.
Avery sighs, placing his hand on his thigh. "It's fine. I'll talk to him tonight. I'll do the job, as well, killing her. You can stay here. You've done enough."
Good. I don't think I'd have the guts to kill her. I hate to admit it, but she's just too... perfect. It would be easier if she was like Theseus. A douchebag, basically.
"Thanks, Avery." I give him a thumbs up. Then I move all the blankets from the couch onto the floor and build my own blanket pile.
I snuggle my knees up to my chest, covering myself with blankets. This way all the sound if muffled and I can just be in my own world.
But they're not talking. I peek out from under the blankets. They're silent, staring at each other. I don't want to join this staring contest so I tug a blanket over my eyes.
I promise myself I'll leave the rest to Avery tonight, that I won't even be there. I'm not like Julian, but I don't think I'll be able to see her... go.
Devyn flops against the bed lazily and groans. He rests his head on the mattress and closes his eyes. Ten minutes later, he's asleep. Avery leaves, rubbing his eyes. It's coming up to 2 in the morning.
I lay one of the wool blankets across Devyn's legs. I stack the other blankets on my bed before jumping up on the big marble counter with one single grey blanket and staring up into the sky.
The stars are shining. It's so dark. But from here I can see the crescent moon and all the stars and the moutains and the snow.
I rest my head against the wall. I'm so sleepy. I close my eyes, thinking about absolutely nothing for once.
~
The digital clock on the bedside table tells me it's 8 in the morning. I jump off the counter, wrapping the blanket around me since it's so cold.
I switch off the AC, then walk over to the bathroom to get dressed. I tug on a black shirt with long sleeves and a pair of black leggings under grey jeans shorts.
"Hey, Delfi." Devyn smiles at me, sitting on his bed. I hadn't even noticed him, but I wave back in return. He clears his throat.
"Avery's talking to Julian in their room. You can go outside their door and eavesdrop... if you want." he laces up his sneakers.
I shrug. "Maybe I will. I don't know." I head towards the door, touching my hair. I cut it last night by myself, so it's still uneven and choppy.
Devyn doesn't say anything else, even though I expected him to. But he stays silent, so I click the door open and walk out into the hall.
I hear whispering from Julian and Avery's room. Their voices are muffled but when I scoot closer, I can make out what they're saying.
"You're not the only one who regrets this, Julian," Avery says, sounding kind of annoyed.
"Yeah, I know, but... I just don't understand how you do it." Julian sighs. There are faint thuds on the floor every few seconds.
Avery's voice softens. "It's okay. Just promise you won't interfere. I'll do it. You won't even have to see it..."
This time Julian's voice is irritated. "What - just because - I still refuse for you to hurt her. It's not about the love part... why would you -"
"Julian. Don't. I'll do it tonight and you won't even know. You won't have a chance to interfere," Avery retorts crossly, his voice getting louder.
"No. You won't." there are footsteps and I realise he's coming to open the door. I flee towards the elevator area just before Julian opens the door.
The elevator doors slide open as if they know that Julian's about to come. There are two other people inside, a girl with pale skin and straight black hair and a little boy with messy ash brown hair licking a lollipop.
I step inside, frantically pressing the button for the doors to close. Just as Julian turns around the corner to the elevator area, they close smoothly.
I press the 'G' button, sighing in relief. The girl seems confused, but smiles gently at me anyway, grasping the boy's arm. She seems around fifteen, and the boy looks six or seven.
"Is he your brother?" my voice comes out soft and hoarse. The girl looks surprised, but not in a rude way.
"No - er - he's my cousin, Jakob." the girl rubs her arm, "my name is Elle, by the way." she adds quietly, and it hurts. Because she reminds me so much of my Mom.
"Right. I'm Delfi." I look back to the front, feeling awkward. God, why did I do that? Why did I try to talk to her? Just because she reminds me so much of her...
The elevator dings and the doors slide open. I step out, and so does Elle. She flashes me a smile before hurrying away, whispering to Jakob.
And that's it. What're the odds I'll ever see her again?
I sigh and turn to the lobby. I collapse onto the sofa and order a tall glass of coffee. When it arrives, I don't drink it. I just stare at the dark brown, watching the steam rise into the air.
And then I gulp it down, burning my tongue, and now I feel like I can breathe fire like a dragon. Imagine how easy it would be to kill Estella then.
~
"I'm going," Avery whispers. He's standing in the doorway of our room. He fidgets with his fingers before turning around and leaving.
Devyn looks at me, then at the closed door. He shrugs and climbs up onto the counter next to the window like I did yesterday, reading Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie.
We both don't say anything. I feel blank. I'm not exactly sad, but just a little wistful, I guess. That I'll never see her again.
But now the mission'll be over. And I'll get to go back home and see Reelinn again. Reelinn. I'm so glad she's safe and sound back home.
There's muffled shouting from below. I don't think anything of it. Devyn goes to check it out. I lean my head against the wall, worried.
Was it Julian?
You know, for all the hatred I have for him, it really is unreasonable. Why I hate him so much, I mean. Like, it's not like he's slowed down the mission or anything. In fact, it was quite easy...
I make a decision right there that if he gets out of this alive, I'll apologise. He did nothing. He might have a soft heart but at least he didn't interfere.
There's more shouting, it almost makes me want to go there. But I don't. I just close my eyes and try to blot out the noise.
Devyn bursts in. "Delfi - oh my God - come quick! Some real shit is happening right now." I have no idea what he means by real shit, but it must be serious.
I follow him downstairs. He practically flies down the stairs in his hurry to get down to Estella's floor. Just outside Estella's door are Julian and Avery.
Avery's trying to get past Julian to knock on Estella's door, but Julian's pushing him back, arms spread in front of it like he's guarding it.
Julian's whispering to Avery urgently, but Avery's clearly not listening. I can't hear whatever he's saying. Avery finally stops struggling.
"Seriously, Avery. Are you seriously gonna..." he gestured to the door. Avery scowls, his hands dropping to his sides.
Julian backs away, but then Avery charges forward and pushed past him towards the door. I want to move, but I'm just stuck watching.
Avery's leg goes up to kick the door. Julian grabs his wrist and with his free hand takes Avery's gun from his pants pocket. Avery freezes.
"Julian. Give it back." he holds out his hand, voice low. Julian backs away, still gripping the gun. Devyn grasps my arm.
"Julian. Give it back," he hisses, eyes narrowed. Julian shakes his head, hiding the gun behind his back as if that would help.
I jump forward. "Just give it back," I tell him, exasperated. His expression softens and his scowl turns into a frown.
"No. Delfi. I'm sorry. I know I'm...." Julian starts.
Avery steps forward and punches him. He reaches past for his weapon but Julian fumbles with it and presses down on the trigger.
Caw caw caw I didn't even bother to edit this I'm lazy and a horrible author caw caw caw
QOTC: Sushi or ramen?
AOTC: Ramen.
~ Emily
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